David has survived his first transfer - same place, new companion. His new companion is a Mexican convert and is 27 years old. We were pretty impressed that someone that age would be devoted enough to serve a mission even though nobody would expect him to.

As you can see, David seems to be serving in paradise. The water is so beautiful and it almost looks like he's serving on a pacific island. He loves his district, he loves being a missionary and he writes that he can't imagine being anywhere else doing anything else. As a parent you can't help but be grateful for stuff like that!

David writes "I’m still always hungry and WAYYYYYY tired, but that’s one of the things I love the most. Knowing that at the end of the day I walked and talked as much as I could and couldn’t have possibly done any more in the day. AND, I did it all with a half full belly and full of water, hehe"

David continues to do well in Mexico. He's had a bout with, well...lets just say "stomach problems" but he assures us he's much better now...at least the parasite test he took said he was okay... :O

David survived his first transfer - his companion left, he stayed. We haven't heard anything about his new companion, but David was very excited to learn new things.

Missionaries are required to use myldsmail.net for their emails home. The problem is, it's not unusual that emails...like, the whole email...is lost before sending it. So...David decided that he'd type his email in a Word document then cut and paste it into an email and hit the "send" button before it gets lost. The only problem is, in Mexico, Word is formatted in Spanish so David says that every word is underlined in red because it's spelled wrong! Oh well, the trials one must endure...

The apartment was out of water for 3 days just before laundry was supposed to be done on P-day. Showers with a bucket, laundry in the sink, who knows how things smelled after the first day let alone after 3!

A Report for the Sunny Beaches of La Paz

You may have seen on the news that Baja California was once again poised to get whacked by a rather large hurricane. Fortunately, the hurricane lost energy at it neared the coast and was downgraded to a rather strong tropical storm. As can be expected we were a little anxious about the storm and David was thoroughly disappointed when it didn't hit. He and his companion were given instruction by the Mission President to buy some food and water and be prepared to stay home for a couple of days; they didn't need their supplies.

David and Elder Sagura spent some time on their roof making preparations for rain and a leaky roof so you'll see a chance to see where David lives...well, at least the roof that covers the place. We learned that the house David is living is owned by Americans so it's not bad for Mexican standards. We also learned that they inherited a dog named Blanco who is a rather large black lab and according to David probably weighs more than Elder Sagura.

David is adjusting to food and water probably as well as can be expected. Here's what he had to say about that: BE WARNED....This isn't for the faint of heart or those easily grossed out...;)

"Diarrhea? Yeah...Not funnnnnnn. Not at all. I had it way bad all day Saturday and I felt like dying all day Sunday. But, none the less, we have a marvelous work to do, so I worked through it. I have a step counter and it was about 20000 steps that day. Almost 20 klicks. Yeah, tough day. I'll spare you the details, but I probably went about 20 times that day, and each time it got less and less solid until it was just water. Literally, just water. I would drink and about 20 minutes later, it was outta me. It was literally just agitating it straight through me. At one point, I drank a powerade and about an hour later I pooped red water that actually smelled like fruit punch powerade that in all honestly was so clean and pure, I could have drunk it if it wasn't in a toilet. I called the President's wife and she said to take Pepto and Imodium. Other that that, welcome to Mexico. Haha :) But I'm fine now, and I duno who it was, but someone was praying for me that day. I could feel it. So thanks :)"

See...I warned you...